I have a confession to make. I love it when Christmas is over.
To me, those weeks before Christmas aren't joyous - they're a maze of challenges and checklists. Shopping. Decorating. Baking. Writing cards. Planning, rushing around, enduring the crowds and the stress and the gatherings. The twinkling music in the stores does not, I have to say, reflect my mood. I try to relax and enjoy it all, but to be honest, by the time Christmas is over, I'm exhausted.
My favorite part of the holiday is the quiet days after Christmas, when the tree's still up, but the busyness is over and a blessed silence falls. There's finally time to enjoy that new book I've been given, to listen to a new CD, or to watch a new movie with my family. Peace and quiet, at last.
I've been thinking about that lately - how gifts can lie behind gifts. The real gifts, shining softly, behind all the noise and glitter. How so often what we need doesn't come in a package.
So let's talk about that first Christmas, and the real gifts that we were given that day.
That first Christmas seems lost in time, so many centuries ago. A different, foreign world. Innkeepers. Mangers in stables. Shepherds dozing by their flocks. Wise men with fancy gifts. What does any of that have to do with us?
Yet after that birth, nothing would be the same. It was just the beginning - a humble couple, a baby like any other. Yet it was a seed of change that would transform the world! That tiny baby would grow up to do and say amazing things, to heal and teach, to speak truth to power, to give his life in love. He would set into motion a movement that would shape the lives of billions of people, and that still does today.
Phew! That's a little overwhelming. Let's bring the volume down a bit, down to your life and mine. Picture, if you will, a Christmas tree in your living room. Picture three wrapped gifts there, under the tree. Let's say each one is about the size of a 3 by 5 picture frame. Now imagine unwrapping the first one.
It's a picture of a man with brown eyes, dark hair and olive-brown skin, See, that's probably what Jesus looked like - not much different from other men in Judea and Egypt in those days. Jesus.
Jesus. Teacher, Guide, Savior. Jesus, here and now, present and real today. Someone who hears my prayers and walks beside me. God said, I love you. I won't leave you to struggle in the darkness alone. I'll send you a Guide, who will show you how to live. I will send you a Friend and Teacher, a Light in the Darkness. A Savior.
What a gift.
He's looking right at you. What do you imagine he's thinking? If he were to speak to you - to you, just you, in your living room, what do you think he might say?
I'll leave you to think about that conversation more later. Let's open another package.
It's a picture of a church.
The gathering places of the faithful. The hidden rooms of persecuted Christians in early days. Secret meetings in countries where Christianity is banned. Struggling little churches in rural America. In every corner of the Earth, there are people who are telling the same stories we tell here - repeating the words of Jesus, finding comfort and challenge in His gospel.
Now, it's a heavy burden on our hearts to look at the terrible mistakes the Christian church has made over the centuries - the Inquisition, the cruelty to people of other faiths, the oppression and extermination of native people here and around the world. Christians have committed awful crimes in the name of God, crimes which still echo today and call for atonement.
But the Christian church has also been a light in the darkness. It was founded at a terrible cost, and early Christians suffered torture and death to keep it alive. It was a light of learning and compassion during the Dark Ages, has guided and inspired countless people through the ages, and still carries that light in the darkness today, calling for justice and compassion and working for change. Over two billion people today call themselves Christians, each trying to live out their faith as best they can.
Right here and now, the church of our faith shelters and warms and teaches us. I'm so thankful for my church, and for my church family. Laughter, warmth, common faith, gathering to learn and pray and act, to work for a better, more just world. Such a precious gift, kept alive by the hard work of so many dedicated people.
The second gift, and we revisit it every time we walk through those doors.
One last gift. Let's open it up.
It's a simple picture - a candle, lit, held high in the darkness.
We don't know what's ahead. We face incredible challenges, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. But if Christmas is real, we are not alone. We've been given a light to carry into the darkness. There is a God who loves us, who loves this world, who has given us the intelligence and vision and creativity we need to find a way. A light for you, to warm you and guide you, day by day, for the rest of your life, from now unto death and beyond.
Love. Light. Hope. Jesus, the Church, light in the darkness. Gifts given by a God who loves us, that stay with us long after the holiday is over and the decorations are packed away. Take them, these three, and hold them close. Carry them in your heart.
Merry Christmas.
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